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Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Irish langage'
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1
O'Conaill, Seán. "The Irish language and the Irish legal system, 1922 to present." Thesis, Cardiff University, 2013. http://orca.cf.ac.uk/58843/.
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This thesis examines the central research questions as to what extent the Irish language plays a significant role in the Irish legal system and how parties seeking to utilise the legal in the legal system fare. The thesis applies standard jurisprudential research methodologies in analysing the key legal developments which have occurred in Ireland from independence in 1922 until today where Ireland is a modern constitutional democracy and member of the European Union. The role of the 1937 Constitution, in particular, is key given the strong legal reliance upon its text in determining the legal status of the Irish language and the extent to which that status can be relied upon in legal proceedings. By interpreting case law from the foundation of the State through until the seminal case of Ó Beoláin in 2001 the gradual development of Irish language rights can be charted. The implications of the Ó Beoláin decision are examined including many of the cases which came about in the immediate aftermath of the case. Among the consequences of the Ó Beoláin case was the Official Languages Act, 2003 which imposed new obligations upon the State and State agencies as well as notionally providing additional supports for those seeking to access justice through the medium of Irish. The effectiveness of this legislation is examined together with recent developments such as the trend towards legal realism and the implications arising out of the Irish language’s interaction with international law. Legal education and training through the medium of Irish is identified as a key factor which contributed to all of areas identified. The provision of services and the ability to access justice through the medium of Irish ultimately depends on there being professionals with sufficient Irish to provide services. The dissonance between the notional status of the Irish language and the reality faced by those seeking to access justice through the medium of Irish is a constant theme throughout the thesis.
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Roloff, Donna Cheryl. "Taking the Irish Pulse: A Revitalization Study of the Irish Language." Thesis, University of North Texas, 2015. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc848143/.
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This thesis argues that Irish can and should be revitalized. Conducted as an observational study, this thesis focuses on interviews with 72 participants during the summer of 2013. All participants live in the Republic of Ireland or Northern Ireland. This thesis investigates what has caused the Irish language to lose power and prestige over the centuries, and which Irish language revitalization efforts have been successful. Findings show that although, all-Irish schools have had a substantial growth rate since 1972, when the schools were founded, the majority of Irish students still get their education through English-medium schools. This study concludes that Irish will survive and grow in the numbers of fluent Irish speakers; however, the government will need to further support the growth of the all-Irish schools. In conclusion, the Irish communities must take control of the promotion of the Irish language, and intergenerational transmission must take place between parents and their children.
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Kennedy, Eimear. "Intercultural encounter in Irish-language travel literature." Thesis, Queen's University Belfast, 2017. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.727414.
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This thesis explores contemporary Irish-language travel literature, a genre that has been largely ignored in Irish literary criticism to date. Unlike travel literature in major world languages, such as English and French, Irish-language travel literature does not have a long-established link with colonialism. It is only in more recent years, as social and economic conditions in Ireland improved and emigration began to give way to travel for leisure purposes, that the field has begun to develop. Given the significant differences between the history of the genre in Irish and other major world languages, this study interrogates how/whether the cultural background of Irish-language travel writers differs to that of other international writers and examines how this impacts upon their interactions with other peoples and other cultures. In order to explore these questions, this thesis draws on postcolonial theory and travel, tourism and mobility studies to investigate intercultural encounter. It pays particular attention to the work of four contemporary writers: Manch^n Magan, Gabriel Rosenstock, Cathal 0 Searcaigh and Dutch-born Alex Hijmans. These writers are minority-language speakers who come from, or who have lived in, Ireland, a country on the periphery of Western Europe that was the victim of colonization, yet they are also relatively wealthy Western Europeans. Thus this study examines how their distinct cultural background alongside their economic privilege affects their encounters with travellees and investigates the associated issues of representation, power and ethics. Ultimately, this thesis provides a new critical insight into Irish-language travel literature which, in turn, has implications for how we study travel writing in languages associated with former imperial powers. The 'in-between' positioning of Irish-language travel writers transcends the conventional dichotomised approach to encounter, provides new perspectives into intercultural contact and proposes a new, dynamic and counterdiscursive 'third space’ that accommodates fluid cultural identities.
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Mac, Eoin Gearóid. "What language was spoken in Ireland before Irish?" Universität Potsdam, 2007. http://opus.kobv.de/ubp/volltexte/2008/1923/.
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Extract:
That the Celtic languages were of the Indo-European family was first recognised
by Rasmus Christian Rask (*1787), a young Danish linguist, in 1818. However,
the fact that he wrote in Danish meant that his discovery was not noted by
the linguistic establishment until long after his untimely death in 1832. The same conclusion was arrived at independently of Rask and, apparently, of each other, by Adolphe Pictet (1836) and Franz Bopp (1837). This agreement between the foremost scholars made possible the completion of the picture of the spread of the Indo-European languages in the extreme west of the European continent. However, in the Middle Ages the speakers of Irish had no awareness of any special relationship between Irish and the other Celtic languages, and a scholar as linguistically competent as Cormac mac Cuillennáin (†908), or whoever compiled Sanas Chormaic, treated Welsh on the same basis as Greek, Latin, and the lingua northmannorum in the elucidation of the meaning and history of Irish words. [...]
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McCoy, Gordon William. "Protestants and the Irish language in Northern Ireland." Thesis, Queen's University Belfast, 1997. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.394598.
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Duncan, Dawn E. (Dawn Elaine). "Language and Identity in Post-1800 Irish Drama." Thesis, University of North Texas, 1994. https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc277916/.
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Using a sociolinguistic and post-colonial approach, I analyze Irish dramas that speak about language and its connection to national identity. In order to provide a systematic and wide-ranging study, I have selected plays written at approximately fifty-year intervals and performed before Irish audiences contemporary to their writing. The writers selected represent various aspects of Irish society--religiously, economically, and geographically--and arguably may be considered the outstanding theatrical Irish voices of their respective generations. Examining works by Alicia LeFanu, Dion Boucicault, W.B. Yeats, and Brian Friel, I argue that the way each of these playwrights deals with language and identity demonstrates successful resistance to the destruction of Irish identity by the dominant language power. The work of J. A. Laponce and Ronald Wardhaugh informs my language dominance theory. Briefly, when one language pushes aside another language, the cultural identity begins to shift. The literature of a nation provides evidence of the shifting perception. Drama, because of its performance qualities, provides the most complex and complete literary evidence. The effect of the performed text upon the audience validates a cultural reception beyond what would be possible with isolated readers. Following a theoretical introduction, I analyze the plays in chronological order. Alicia LeFanu's The Sons of Erin; or, Modern Sentiment (1812) gently pleads for equal treatment in a united Britain. Dion Boucicault's three Irish plays, especially The Colleen Bawn (1860) but also Arrah-na-Pogue (1864) and The Shaughraun (1875), satirically conceal rebellious nationalist tendencies under the cloak of melodrama. W. B. Yeats's The Countess Cathleen (1899) reveals his romantic hope for healing the national identity through the powers of language. However, The Only Jealousy of Emer (1919) and The Death of Cuchulain (1939) reveal an increasing distrust of language to mythically heal Ireland. Brian Friel's Translations (1980), supported by The Communication Cord (1982) and Making History (1988), demonstrates a post-colonial move to manipulate history in order to tell the Irish side of a British story, constructing in the process an Irish identity that is postnational.
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Ó, Béarra Feargal. "Late Modern Irish and the Dynamics of Language Change and Language Death." Universität Potsdam, 2007. http://opus.kobv.de/ubp/volltexte/2008/1933/.
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Contents:
Definition of Late Modern Irish
Lexical and Syntactic Equivalence
The Official Languages Act and the Translation Industry
Dynamics of Language Change and Language Death
Lack of Exposure and Critical Mass
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Frawley, Oona. "Irish pastoral : nostalgia and twentieth-century Irish literature /." Dublin : Irish academic press, 2005. http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb400138598.
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White, David Lloyd. "Irish influence and the interpretation of old English spelling /." Digital version accessible at:, 2000. http://wwwlib.umi.com/cr/utexas/main.
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Oehling, Richard. "Contemporary Irish Fiction: Lavin and Trevor." W&M ScholarWorks, 1985. https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd/1539625307.
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Stubbs, Tara M. C. "'Irish by descent' : Marianne Moore, Irish writers and the American-Irish Inheritance." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2008. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:bf87b5ea-4baa-4a46-9509-2c59e738e2a1.
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Despite having a rather weak family connection to Ireland, the American modernist poet Marianne Moore (1887-1972) described herself in a letter to Ezra Pound in 1919 as ‘Irish by descent’. This thesis relates Moore’s claim of Irish descent to her career as a publisher, poet and playwright, and argues that her decision to shape an Irish inheritance for herself was linked with her self-identification as an American poet. Chapter 1 discusses Moore’s self-confessed susceptibility to ‘Irish magic’ in relation to the increase in contributions from Irish writers during her editorship of The Dial magazine from 1925 to 1929. Moore’s 1915 poems to the Irish writers George Moore, W. B. Yeats and George Bernard Shaw, which reveal a paradoxical desire for affiliation to, and disassociation from, Irish literary traditions, are scrutinized in Chapter 2. Chapters 3a and b discuss Moore’s ‘Irish’ poems ‘Sojourn in the Whale’ (1917) and ‘Spenser’s Ireland’ (1941). In both poems political events in Ireland – the ‘Easter Rising’ of 1916 and Ireland’s policy of neutrality during World War II – become a backdrop for Moore’s personal anxieties as an American poet of ‘Irish’ descent coming to terms with her political and cultural inheritance. Expanding upon previous chapters’ discussion of the interrelation of poetics and politics, Chapter 4 shows how Moore’s use of Irish sources in ‘Spenser’s Ireland’ and other poems including ‘Silence’ and the ‘Student’ reflects her quixotic attitude to Irish culture as alternately an inspiration and a tool for manipulation. The final chapter discusses Moore’s adaptation of the Anglo-Irish novelist Maria Edgeworth’s 1812 novel The Absentee as a play in 1954. Through this last piece of ‘Irish’ writing, Moore adopts a sentimentality that befits the later stages of her career and illustrates how Irish literature, rather than Irish politics, has emerged as her ultimate source of inspiration.
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Hansson, Karin. "The Autonomous and the Passive Progressive in 20th-Century Irish." Doctoral thesis, Uppsala : Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis : Univ.-bibl. [distributör], 2004. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-4263.
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Fristedt, Emma. "Irish loanwords in English varieties." Thesis, Högskolan i Halmstad, Akademin för lärande, humaniora och samhälle, 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hh:diva-27603.
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This essay will discuss and research the width and frequency of Irish loanwords in contemporary English varieties. The meanings, uses, differences, similarities and collocations of selected words will be discussed and analyzed in order to find answers to the research questions asked. The methods used are quantitative and qualitative research methods. The quantitative method will measure the frequency of the selected words in each of the selected varieties and the qualitative method will discuss the meanings and uses of the words in the different varieties. Each word has its own section which discuss meanings, developments and instances in which the words can be found in the different varieties. These sections are summarized at the end of the essay and the conclusion states that Irish loanwords in contemporary English varieties are not greatly widespread compared to the frequency of the same words in Irish English. A few of the words have been able to develop their meaning and use through time, but most instances of the words show the original meaning and use.
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Callahan, Kevin Edward. "Affirmed from under, the Irish language education movement in Belfast." Thesis, National Library of Canada = Bibliothèque nationale du Canada, 1997. http://www.collectionscanada.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/ftp04/mq25944.pdf.
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Golden, J. "Language and Identity Making in a Northern Irish Political Party." Thesis, Queen's University Belfast, 2010. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.527704.
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Browne, Elaine. "Grammar matters? : teaching Irish as a second language in Ireland." Thesis, Open University, 2017. http://oro.open.ac.uk/52713/.
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This thesis presents a small-scale investigation into practising primary teachers’ perspectives on the role of English grammar in second language teaching in the Irish context where English is the medium of instruction. A mixed methods approach was employed to investigate whether having a sound knowledge of English grammar might facilitate the teaching of Irish grammar. Teachers’ perspectives on pedagogical practice were gathered via the employment of questionnaires, interviews and observations. Fifteen questionnaire respondents contributed perspectives on learning and teaching English and Irish grammar in the Irish context and three of these provided follow-up interviews and observations. Applying both thematic and sociocultural theorising enabled understandings to be built within the uniqueness of the Irish teaching context. The findings revealed that a sound knowledge of English grammar supports the learning of grammar in Irish as a second language. While teachers appreciate the importance of knowledge of grammar to teach languages, they do not necessarily have a sound knowledge of grammar in either English or Irish. This limitation in grammar knowledge may impact negatively when teaching Irish as a second language. Based on these findings it is recommended that grammar should hold a more prominent place in the language curriculum and the teaching of grammar should be integrated within the language curriculum for both children in schools and trainee teachers to increase the quality of Irish second language teaching in the Irish context.
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Quaintmere, Max. "Aspects of memory in medieval Irish literature." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 2018. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/9026/.
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This thesis explores a number of topics centred around the theme of memory in relation to medieval Irish literature roughly covering the period 600—1200 AD but considering, where necessary, material later than this date. Firstly, based on the current scholarship in memory studies focused on the Middle Ages, the relationship between medieval thought on memory in Ireland is compared with its broader European context. From this it becomes clear that Ireland, whilst sharing many parallels with European thought during the early Middle Ages based on a shared literary inheritance from the Christian and late-classical worlds, does not experience the same renaissance in memory theory that occurred in European universities from the thirteenth century onwards. Next, a detailed semantic study of memory terms in Old and Middle Irish is provided with the aim of clarifying, supplementing and revising the definitions found in the Royal Irish Academy’s Dictionary of the Irish Language. Whilst the two principal memory nouns, cuimne and mebair, appear largely synonymous, the verb mebraigid appears to lean towards favouring the sense of ‘committing to memory,’ whereas cuimnigid(ir) encompasses this sense in addition to that of ‘recalling from memory.’ The third part of this thesis re-evaluates the dichotomous tension between notions of orality and literacy which some scholars have found in medieval Irish literature, arguing that this aspect has perhaps been exaggerated and that memory was a fluid concept in medieval Ireland embracing and merging both oral and textual forms. Following this, an assessment is made as to the importance and function of memory within the learned culture of the filid emphasising its necessary significance in a culture still partly based in an oral world. A wide range of sources including legal texts, grammatical tracts and tale literature is explored to show that the filid’s idealisation of memory was, largely, as a broad, comprehensive source supplying the knowledge necessary to acquire prestige through its performance and expression in a social context. The last part of this thesis investigates the notion that memory of the past could be used for the purposes of propaganda in medieval Ireland through the case study of the Ulster Cycle tales. Summarising and criticising some of the key prior scholarship in this area, this final section advocates for a much more cautious approach when claiming Ulster Cycle tales demonstrate political leanings, and that these must include or reconcile other more literary based interpretations of the themes and characters in these texts in order to remain successful as critical readings.
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Caulfield, John. "A social network analysis of Irish language use in social media." Thesis, Cardiff University, 2013. http://orca.cf.ac.uk/53228/.
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Statistics show that the world wide web is dominated by a few widely spoken languages. However, in quieter corners of the web, clusters of minority language speakers can be found interacting and sharing content. This study is the first to compare three such clusters of Irish language social media users. Social network analysis of the most active public sites of interaction through Irish – the Irish language blogosphere, the Irish language Twittersphere and a popular Irish language Facebook group – reveals unique networks of individuals communicating through Irish in unique and innovative ways. Firstly, it describes the members and their activity, and the size and structure of the networks they share. Then through focused discourse analysis of the core prolific users in each network it describes how the language has been adapted to computer-mediated communication. This study found that the largest networks of Irish speakers comprised between 150-300 regular participants each. Most members were adults, male, and lived in towns and cities outside of the language’s traditional heartland. Moreover, each group shared one common trait: though scattered geographically, through regular online interaction between core members they behave like communities. They were found to have shared histories, norms and customs, and self-awareness that their groups were unique. Furthermore, core users had adapted the language in new and innovative ways through their online discourse. This study is the first comprehensive audit of who is using the Irish language socially on the web, where they are forming networks online, and how they are adapting the language to online discourse. It makes a unique contribution in re-imagining what constitutes an Irish language community in the context of the Network Society. In the process, it contributes to the growing body of sociolinguistic research into globalisation and local identity on the web.
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O'Reilly, Camille C. "Fior-Ghaeil : the politics of the Irish language in West Belfast." Thesis, Queen's University Belfast, 1996. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.394469.
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Malcolm, I. "Towards inclusion: young Protestants and the Irish language in Northern Ireland." Thesis, Queen's University Belfast, 2008. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.484978.
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This thesis is an evaluation of the views and perceptions towards the Irish language held by young Protestants in Northern Ireland. Since the beginning of the twentieth century, Irish has been seen by rTlilny people as an important component of Nationalist and Republican identity, with the result that those from the Protestant and Unionist tradition have become alienated from the language. Historically, this was not always the case and many Protestants engaged with the language ina variety of ways. This 'forgotten heritage' is explored in the opening chapters of the thesis. An exposition of contemporary views draws on the research of scholars who have examined Protestant views on Irish; this is complemented by available attitudinal data, Northern Ireland Census figures and a number of instances which have brought the question of Protestants/Unionists and Irish into sharp focus. The major research component of this thesis is fieldwork conducted in a number of 'Protestant' grammar schools. A 'triangulated' approach used questionnaire and focus group methodology to provide both quantitative and qualitative data. The piloting process, which lays the foundation for successful fieldwork, is discussed in some depth. Having coded the relevant data, the SPSS package was used for presentation and statistical analysis to discover whether significant links between variables existed. Qualitative data from the focus groups is presented in summarised form according to theme. This combination of quantitative and qualitative information provides a fresh look at the views of Protestants towards Irish in Northern Ireland. Much has changed since the 1998 Belfast Agreement and this thesis, by dealing specifically with young people', shifts the focus onto a new constituency that may be more willing to re-engage with the language.
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Scott, Sheila. "The second language acquisition of Irish relative clauses: The morphologysyntax interface." Thesis, University of Ottawa (Canada), 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/29313.
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The thesis explores whether or not overt bound morphology triggers the acquisition of distinct structural representations or whether these representations are acquired independently of the morphology. Second language learners of Irish were tested to determine their level of sensitivity to distinct complementizer forms in Irish, aL which triggers lenition on the verb in the presence of a gap in the clause and aN which triggers eclipsis on the verb in the presence of a resumptive pronoun in the clause. Adult second language learners of Irish were tested using aural and written acceptability judgements tasks to determine if they had acquired a resumptive strategy according to the form of the complementizer.
Results indicated that learners were not sensitive to the distinct complementizer, i.e., to the distinct mutations of the verbs. Gap structures were preferred regardless of the mutation on the verb. An emerging resumptive strategy appears to be present based on the acceptance of resumptive pronouns in the form of prepositional pronouns in the clause. It is argued that access to Universal Grammar has facilitated this development independently of the acquisition of the prescribed morphology.
Results also appear to indicate that there is a generation gap between native speakers and their ability to distinguish between the aL and aN complementizers. A lack of sensitivity to the mutations appears to be present in the young bilingual speakers of Irish who grew up with both languages in the home. It is argued that increased exposure to a variety of dialects through the media as well as pressures of language contact, have had an impact.
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McMahon, Melanie. "Irish as symptom : language, ideology and praxis in the post/colony." Thesis, King's College London (University of London), 2012. https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/irish-as-symptom(887ab156-5e57-43fa-b6f1-3b0a9c591919).html.
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Within popular culture and academic scholarship alike, a standard narrative exists about the rightful (non-)place of the Irish language in post/colonial society. It is a tautological narrative because the apparent unfitness of Irish for the exigencies of postmodern life both explains its disappearance and prevents its full revival (i.e., Irish is outmoded because it is outmoded). That Irish requires costly government expenditures to stabilize it only confirms its inherent infirmity. Yet the ’problem’ of indigenous language is not so neatly resolved, especially as it threatens to erupt, symptom-like, in unexpected (i.e., Anglophone) contexts. The usual post/colonial paradigms cannot fully account for the disjunctive position of Irish. Critical theory, on the other hand, offers a way to think the striking disconnect between the constitutional fact of Irish as the ’first official language,’ for example, and the reality that almost no one speaks it. Lacan called this type of disconnect a symptom. ’Symptomal torsions’ are everywhere evident in the Republic: from bilingual road signs to the near total displacement of the language onto reluctant school-children. Such measures guarantee that Irish will not be spoken in the more unruly space of the streets. The containment of Irish alongside its official valorisation makes certain that it (and the associated ’barbarism’ of the pre-colonial past) cannot return in unforeseen ways. Yet return it does; all the cultural products analysed in the dissertation have some relationship to this return of the linguistic repressed. Each text highlights the fraught interface between the indigenous language and its imperial replacement, in both the North and the Republic. They may be humorous and satirical, as in the short films of Daniel O’Hara, or they may be resistant and political, as in the H-Block oral testimonies. They may be eulogistic, as with Brian Friel’s language play, Translations, or they may be more recognisably post/colonial, as in the essays of native intellectuals explaining their choice of English over the 'mother tongue'. This research draws on textual analyses along with (analytic and continental) philosophies of language. It constructs a methodology based on close readings of literary, filmic, and archival texts through various modes of critical theory. By examining the ways in which these texts both converge and diverge, this research elucidates those intersections between language, power, and the colonial legacy that would otherwise remain obscure.
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Lehmann-Shriver, Edyta Anna. "The Power of Words: Female Speech as a Narrative Force in Irish Tales across Centuries." Thesis, Harvard University, 2012. http://dissertations.umi.com/gsas.harvard:10430.
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This study is devoted to five Irish language texts composed in the period between 9th and 21st centuries: four prose tales, an Old Irish tale Loinges Mac nUislenn (The Exile of the Sons of Uisliu (before 10th c.)), two Middle Irish texts Toruigheacht Dhiarmada agus Ghrainne (The Pursuit of Diarmaid and Grainne (c. 12thc.)) and Tochmarc Etaine (The Wooing of Etain), an 18th century Romance of Mis and Dubh Ruis, and a narrative poem Mis published by the contemporary Irish poet Biddy Jekinson in 2001. It examines the heroines of these texts, Derdrui, Grainne, Etain, and Mis, focusing particularly on their roles in the development of their respective narratives and their influence on the overall message of their texts. The texts share a strong connection in that they all, in a more or less direct way, touch upon the female experience reflected in their leading female characters, yet none of them, except for Jenkinson's poem, focuses expressly on representing female characters. Instead the texts use these characters as a means for the elaboration of male characters, reinforcing at the same time the contemporaneous patriarchal viewpoint, thus creating the ideological scheme of the text. Jenkinson's Mis reveals the underlying narrative force of these traditional female characters. It uses a traditional tale to create a new narrative which is re-centered on its female character, thus narrativizing its inherent strength. Beneath their explicitly assigned roles, the female characters in question serve as powerful narrative agents. Their impact transforms the overt ideologies of their respective narratives so that they diverge from the traditional role of the conveyors of conventional values. The examination of the female characters concentrates particularly on the effect their speech has on the development of the narrative. Although modestly represented in the discussed texts, the female words nevertheless subvert the explicit ideologies of their text by the introduction of skepticism as to the objective values suggested by the texts, thus allowing for a conversation with the prevalent discourses and in the end for the consideration of alternative discourses. The dissertation employs Mikhail Bakhtin's theory of dialogism and heteroglossia, as well as his examination of the Bildungsrom, which allows for the theoretization of the connection between the texts, as well as for their re-interpretation.<br>Celtic Languages and Literatures
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McManus, Cathal. "Imagining the republican community : language, education and nationalism in Northern Ireland. A case study analysis of nationalism through an exploration of identity formation within Irish Republicanism, 1969-2012." Thesis, Queen's University Belfast, 2013. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.602677.
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Tristram, Hildegard L. C. "Wie weit sind die inselkeltischen Sprachen (und das Englische) analytisiert?" Universität Potsdam, 2009. http://opus.kobv.de/ubp/volltexte/2010/4125/.
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Der gemeinsame Wandel der inselkeltischen Sprachen wie auch des Englischen vom vorwiegend synthetischen Typus zum vorwiegend analytischen Typus läßt sich vermutlich auf einen ca. 1500 Jahre dauernden intensiven Sprachenkontakt zwischen diesen Sprachen zurückführen. Heute ist das Englische die analytischste Sprache der Britischen Inseln und Irlands, gefolgt vom Walisischen, Bretonischen und Irischen. Letzteres ist von den genannten Sprachen noch am weitesten morphologisch komplex.<br>I discuss the joint shift of the Insular Celtic languages and of the English language from, typologically speaking, predominantly synthetic languages c. 1500 years ago to predominantly analytical languages today. The demise of the inflectional morphology is most advanced in Present Day English. Welsh follows suit. Then come Breton and Irish. Intensive linguistic interaction across the boundaries of the Germanic and the Insular Celtic languages are proposed to have been instrumental for this type of linguistic convergence.
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Hickey, Raymond. "Contact, shift and language change : Irish English and South African Indian English." Universität Potsdam, 2006. http://opus.kobv.de/ubp/volltexte/2010/4102/.
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Content:
1. Introduction
2. English in South Africa
2.1. Transmission of English
2.2. The Language Shift
3. Features of South African Indian English
3.1. Discussion of Features
4. Further Shift-induced Varieties
4.1. Aboriginal English
4.2. Hebridean English
5. Conclusion
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McMonagle, Sarah. "The Irish Language in post-agreement Northern Ireland : Moving out of conflict." Thesis, University of Ulster, 2010. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.553868.
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This thesis enquires whether the Irish language can be removed from discourses of conflict in post-Agreement Northern Ireland. Following an inter-disciplinary examination of the relation between language and the 'national' community, emphasis will be placed on deconstructing the binary of ethnopolitical conflict within which Irish has been framed. Considering that linguistic recognition has been conferred through the Good Friday Agreement (1998), language policy in Northern Ireland must be seen as a type of conflict management. Northern Ireland's transition from conflict will be analysed in terms of political stability through renewed powersharing, a more peaceful society and sociocultural pluralisation beyond the so-called 'two communities'. This period of reconstruction emphasises skills and equality to which language and cultural recognition are key. Utilising original qualitative and quantitative data, this author will present two studies in which the Irish language may be conceived outside of the conflict-management framework. Research undertaken for the comprehensive Northern Ireland Languages Strategy (NILS) reveals a high level of public support for generally increasing language skills in Northern Ireland, alongside mixed responses to the role of Irish. A primary case study on Irish language learners in Canada will then demonstrate the global and multi cultural significance of Irish, highlighting the porosity of physical and cultural borders that discourses of conflict eschew. Government reluctance to view the Irish language as a legitimate skill and matter for the equality agenda continues to shape policy and debate. This continuing form of conflict is inconsistent with the relative success of the democratic process, as well as with the developing Celtic language regimes elsewhere. In response, this author will examine a deliberative democratic forum for language planning in Northern Ireland. This thesis thus contributes to the fields of minority language planning and democratic theory by viewing them as mutually reinforcing in Northern Ireland's transition from conflict.
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Muller, Janet. "The road towards the Irish Language Act in the north of Ireland." Thesis, University of Ulster, 2007. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.443636.
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Mas-Moury, Mack Vanessa. "Language attitudes of parents in Irish-medium primary schools in County Dublin." Thesis, Bordeaux 3, 2013. http://www.theses.fr/2013BOR30011/document.
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Cette étude de recherche s’intéresse aux attitudes envers la langue gaélique en République d’Irlande. Le gaélique, tout comme l’anglais, est la langue nationale officielle et est enseignée comme matière obligatoire de l’école élémentaire au lycée. Bien que le nombre de personnes utilisant le gaélique dans la vie quotidienne reste faible, il existe depuis les années soixante-dix une résurgence d’intérêt dans cette langue. Celle-ci se traduit, entre autres, par une demande croissante du nombre d’écoles d’immersion en gaélique, tout particulièrement dans les régions où le gaélique n’est pas pratiqué au sein de la communauté. Cette étude cherche à éclaircir ce phénomène en analysant les attitudes envers le gaélique des parents d’élèves d’écoles primaires d’immersion en zone urbaine, et plus précisément, dans le comté de Dublin. En effet, peu de recherches ont été effectuées sur les attitudes envers le gaélique au sein des familles ayant choisi une éducation par immersion pour leurs enfants.Les personnes participant à cette étude se composent de parents d’élèves avec une expérience plus ou moins longue de l’enseignement en immersion, ainsi que d’enseignants des écoles participantes. Les données recueillies pour cette étude proviennent d’un questionnaire auto-administré ainsi que d’entretiens suivis.La question sur la motivation des parents à choisir un enseignement en immersion est centrale au thème des attitudes envers le gaélique, puisque dans ce contexte, l’anglais est la seule langue utilisée dans la communauté ainsi que dans la plupart des foyers. Les résultats d’analyse révèlent que les parents participant ont choisi ce type d’éducation car ils considèrent d’une part que le gaélique est un marqueur d’identité culturelle voire ethnique pour certains, et d’autre part qu’il permet d’acquérir du capital culturel. En effet, les participants s’intéressent de près à la qualité de l’éducation de leurs enfants et valorisent le bilinguisme additif. Ainsi, ils attribuent au gaélique une valeur culturelle importante. Cette étude montre également que les parents d’élèves ont une attitude positive envers la langue gaélique. Ceci s’explique de par leur enclin naturel mais aussi de par leur contact avec ces écoles d’immersion, environnement dans lequel le gaélique est mis en valeur. Cependant, malgré les efforts des parents à intégrer la langue gaélique à la maison ou dans les activités récréatives de leurs enfants, ce milieu ne semble pas être déclencheur de pratiques bilingues au sein de la famille. Néanmoins, cette étude indique que les écoles d’immersion favorisent la création de liens entre quelques familles communiquant entre elles en gaélique<br>This study explores attitudes towards the Irish language in the Republic of Ireland. The Irish language—alongside with English—is the national official language and is taught in school as a compulsory subject from primary school through to the end of secondary level. Despite the low percentage of daily Irish-speakers in the country the demand for Irish-medium education as an alternative means of education has been growing since the 1970s, especially in English-speaking areas. This current study focuses on the language attitudes of parents whose child attends an urban Irish-medium primary school in County Dublin and analyses the reasons for choosing such an education. Although there has been a considerable number of research studies conducted on language attitudes towards Irish in the Republic of Ireland, very few have recently concentrated on families involved with Irish-medium education. Participants included parents with both short term and long term experience with immersion education through Irish. The main research instruments included a self-administered questionnaire and follow-up interviews with a sample of questionnaire respondents as well as teachers from the participating schools. One of the main focuses of this study is parental motivation for sending their child to an Irish-medium school. Results reveal that participants selected such education for their child for two main reasons: identity and cultural capital. Firstly, most participants regarded Irish as a strong cultural identity marker while others also considered the language as a strong marker of ethnic identity. Secondly and most importantly, participants expressed a strong interest in both education and additive bilingualism thus attributing a high cultural value to the Irish language. Findings also show that participants have very positive attitudes towards the Irish language. This is mainly due to their natural favourable disposition to Irish but also to their exposure to the Irish-medium school environment which tends to enhance this positive attitude. But despite participants' efforts to include some Irish in their child's life, either during recreational activities or at home, self-reports did not indicate the emergence of bilingual families. However, there is some evidence that the school facilitates the creation of Irish-speaking social networks between a few families
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Scott, Sheila. "The second language acquisition of Irish relative clauses: The morphology/syntax interface." Thesis, University of Ottawa (Canada), 2005. http://hdl.handle.net/10393/11012.
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The thesis explores whether or not overt bound morphology triggers the acquisition of distinct structural representations or whether these representations are acquired independently of the morphology. Second language learners of Irish were tested to determine their level of sensitivity to distinct complementizer forms in Irish, aL which triggers lenition on the verb in the presence of a gap in the clause and aN which triggers eclipsis on the verb in the presence of a resumptive pronoun in the clause. Adult second language learners of Irish were tested using aural and written acceptability judgements tasks to determine if they had acquired a resumptive strategy according to the form of the complementizer. Results indicated that learners were not sensitive to the distinct complementizer, i.e., to the distinct mutations of the verbs. Gap structures were preferred regardless of the mutation on the verb. An emerging resumptive strategy appears to be present based on the acceptance of resumptive pronouns in the form of prepositional pronouns in the clause. It is argued that access to Universal Grammar has facilitated this development independently of the acquisition of the prescribed morphology. Results also appear to indicate that there is a generation gap between native speakers and their ability to distinguish between the aL and aN complementizers. A lack of sensitivity to the mutations appears to be present in the young bilingual speakers of Irish who grew up with both languages in the home. It is argued that increased exposure to a variety of dialects through the media as well as pressures of language contact, have had an impact.
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Mantovani, Alexandra. "The languages of postcolonial ireland and their potential for cultural expression." Bachelor's thesis, Alma Mater Studiorum - Università di Bologna, 2014. http://amslaurea.unibo.it/7496/.
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Ireland is a country in which two languages are spoken: English and Irish. This thesis analyzes the historical relationship between the languages, the cultural codes and meanings attached to each of them, as well as how much of the culture of its speakers each is able to carry. Beyond that, the influence the two languages have exercised on one another and their mutual entwinement is taken into closer examination.
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Girvin, Alan Kevin. "At the limits of cultural nationalism : language, culture, politics in the earlier writings of Brian O'Nolan (Flann O'Brien/Myles na Gopaleen)." Thesis, University of Southampton, 1995. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.296185.
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Ó, Cathalláin Seán. "Early literacy in all-Irish immersion primary schools : a micro-ethnographic case study of storybook reading events in Irish and English." Thesis, University of Stirling, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/1893/6509.
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This thesis examines ways in which literacy practices are shaped by local norms in all-Irish immersion schools, as evidenced in storybook reading events in Irish and English. Within a sociocultural framing, the thesis takes as presuppositions that (i) reading is not a set of autonomous, transferable skills but is embedded in social settings; (ii) contexts and literacy practices co-emerge; (iii) children learn ways of being readers through participation in classroom literacy events; and (iv) language, literacy and identity are inextricably linked in all-Irish immersion programmes. In a classroom the teacher and pupils co-construct their own particular models, understandings, and definitions of literacy through their actions and the events they engage in. In the present study literacy is theorized as a performative accomplishment co-constructed by the participants in the event including those not directly present such as authors and illustrators. A micro-ethnographic case study approach was used to examine literacy practices in infant classes in all-Irish schools. Taking a phenomenological approach data were gathered using video-recording, observation, and pupil and teacher interviews and data were analysed using inductive analysis and interpretive discourse analysis. Key findings from the study are that (1) local norms, filtered through teachers' intentions and motivations, shaped the storybook reading events; (2) classroom literacy practices constructed during the Irish events were being transferred to the English events; and (3) children selected from their first and second language linguistic resources during storybook reading events to support their reading development. These three processes together were part of how children negotiated their socially situated identities as bilinguals and bilingual readers. Parental support for speaking Irish as well as social proximity to the Gaeltacht community, were factors closely associated with positive attitudes to speaking Irish and to reading in Irish. One implication of the findings is that teachers in all-Irish schools will need to make explicit their views of knowledge and of what it means to be a reader in an all-Irish school as they consider young children's agency in constructing their interpretations of texts.
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Ward, Patrick. "Exile, emigration and Irish writing /." Dublin ; Portland (Or.) : Irish academic press, 2002. http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb38810666n.
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Kirk, John M., and Jeffrey L. Kallen. "Assessing Celticity in a corpus of Irish Standard English." Universität Potsdam, 2007. http://opus.kobv.de/ubp/volltexte/2008/1934/.
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Conventional wisdom since the earliest studies of Irish English has attributed
much of what is distinctive about this variety to the influence of the Irish language. From the early philologists (Joyce 1910, van Hamel 1912) through the
classic works of Henry (1957, 1958) and Bliss (1979) down to present-day linguistic orientations (e.g. Corrigan 2000 a, Filppula 1999, Fiess 2000, Hickey
2000, Todd 1999, and others), the question of Irish-language influence may be
disputed on points of detail, but remains a central focus for most studies in the field. It is not our intention to argue with this consensus, nor to examine specific points of grammar in detail, but, rather, to suggest an approach to this question which (a) takes for its empirical base a sample of the standard language, rather than dialectal material or the sample sentences so beloved of many papers on the subject, and (b) understands Celticity not just in terms of the formal transfer of grammatical features, but as an indexical feature of language use, i.e. one in which English in Ireland is used in such a way as to point to the Irish language as a linguistic and cultural reference point. In this sense, our understanding of Celticity is not entirely grammatical, but relies as well on Pierce’s notion of indexicality (see Greenlee 1973), by which semiotic signs ‘point to’ other signs. Our focus in assessing Celticity, then, derives in the first instance from an examination of the International Corpus of English (ICE). We have recently completed the publication of the Irish component of ICE (ICE-Ireland), a machinereadable corpus of over 1 million words of speech and writing gathered from a range of contexts determined by the protocols of the global International Corpus of English project. The international nature of this corpus project makes for ready comparisons with other varieties of English, and in this paper we will focus on comparisons with the British corpus, ICE-GB. For references on ICE generally, see Greenbaum 1996; for ICE-GB, see especially Nelson, Wallis and Aarts 2002; and for ICE-Ireland, see papers such as Kirk, Kallen, Lowry & Rooney (2003), Kirk & Kallen (2005), and Kallen & Kirk (2007). Our first approach will be to look for signs of overt Celticity in those grammatical features of Irish English which have been put forward as evidence of Celtic transfer (or of the reinforcement between Celtic and non-Celtic historical sources); our second approach will be to look at non-grammatical ways in which texts in ICEIreland become indexical of Celticity by less structural means such as loanwords, code-switching, and covert reference using ‘standard’ English in ways that are specific to Irish usage. We argue that, at least within the standard language as we have observed it, Celticity is at once less obvious than a reading of the dialectal literature might suggest and, at the same time, more pervasive than a purely grammatical approach would imply.
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Tristram, Hildegard L. C. "On the ‘Celticity’ of Irish Newspapers : a research report." Universität Potsdam, 2007. http://opus.kobv.de/ubp/volltexte/2008/1935/.
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Extract:
[...]Of all the print-media newspapers are the most commonly used. They are not
literature in the sense of belles letters, but they should not be underestimated in their political, social and personal importance. No other printed product is as closely linked with everyday life as the newspapers. The day begins under their influence, and their contents mirror the events of the day with varying accuracy. Newspapers are strongly reader-oriented. They want to inform, but they also want to instil opinions. Specific choices of information shape the content level. Specific choices of language are resorted to in order to spread opinions and viewpoints. Language creates solidarity between the producers and the consumers of newspapers and thereby supports ideologies by specifically targeted linguistic means. Other strategies are employed for the same purpose, too. Visual aspects are of great importance, such as the typographical layout, the use of pictures, drawings, colours, fonts, etc.[...]
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Mahoney, Maria C. "Sancti et linguae the classical world in the eyes of Hibernia /." Diss., Columbia, Mo. : University of Missouri-Columbia, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/10355/5675.
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Thesis (M.A.)--University of Missouri-Columbia, 2008.<br>The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file. Title from title screen of research.pdf file (viewed on September 5, 2008) Includes bibliographical references.
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O'Shaughnessy, Susan. "Changing professional identities of foreign language lecturers in the Irish higher education system." Thesis, University of Sheffield, 2010. http://etheses.whiterose.ac.uk/14651/.
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In this study I argue that professional identity is changed to a large extent by the effects of time and space on both individuals and groups. By using Bourdieu's key concepts of habitus, capital and field in relation to each other, this smallscale research project into the changing professional identities of German language lecturers in a number of Irish higher education institutions demonstrates how the choices made are influenced by individual and collective history (conceptualised by habitus and capital over time) and the social spaces or institutions within which these agents interact (fields). With the reduction in demand for German over the last decade lecturers have been obliged to refocus on new disciplines and specialisms or, in the case of part-time staff, have had to adapt to moving completely out of the profession. The thesis begins by outlining the background of structural changes that have affected the professional identities of language teachers and academics. It goes on to position the project within a framework provided by Bourdieu' s concepts. As an affected member of this professional group, I use the concept of reflexivity to show how an insider's perspective gives insights into power relations within a higher education institution undergoing constant structural change. The fields of European, national and institutional language policies are analysed and this leads on to a critical engagement with the narratives of a group of 13 German lecturers and former lecturers from one institution who have been obliged to cope with challenges within a specific institutional field and with a professional habitus similar to my own. The conclusion highlights the factors that have affected successful and unsuccessful transitions in professional identity, suggesting that the passage of time and the creation of a unified professional space can support the formation of stable individual and collective identities.
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UiÌ, Cheallaigh MaÌiriÌn Bean. "Cor ur : staideÌar ar filiÌocht comhaimseartha na Gaeilge." Thesis, University of Ulster, 1997. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.268537.
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Watts, Emma Louise. "Success in minority language revival programmes : a case study of Hawaiian, Irish and Kaurna /." Title page, table of contents and abstract only, 2003. http://web4.library.adelaide.edu.au/theses/09AR/09arw348.pdf.
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Cooper, Richard. "The languages of philosophy, religion, and art in the writings of Iris Murdoch /." Thesis, McGill University, 1987. http://digitool.Library.McGill.CA:80/R/?func=dbin-jump-full&object_id=72105.
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This thesis develops a complex theoretical model for conceptualizing the relationships among philosophy, religion, and art and, then, examines the philosophical writings and the novels of Iris Murdoch from this perspective. The theoretical model in its most general form is based on the premiss that philosophy, religion, and art can be thought of as conventionally defined linguistic fields analogous to Wittgensteinian language-games. Relations among the linguistic fields are, in turn, analysed as exclusive ("Disparate" Model), inclusive ("Reductionist" Model), or interactional ("Dialectical" and "Tensional" Models), the latter pair being most appropriate for figurative language, the former pair for non-figurative language. The Dialectical and Tensional Models are assimilated, respectively, to Roman Jakobson's theory of metaphor and metonymy as the fundamental poles of language. Emphasis falls upon the continuum between the dialectical-metaphoric and the tensional-metonymic poles as the area in which creative, imaginative activities, such as the writing of novels or deliberation upon ethical problems, takes place. Iris Murdoch's theories of "crystalline" and "journalistic," "open" and "closed" novels and the related ways of thinking are coordinated with this continuum as a paradigm. Moreover, a creative tension is revealed in her philosophical writings between a resisted impetus towards totalizing explanations and the experience of the inherent contingency of philosophical thought. Thus, there is in Murdoch's philosophy, as in her creative prose, an exploration of the dynamics between the dialectical-metaphoric pole of thought and language and the tensional-metonymic pole, with an increasing, though never finally realized tendency towards the tensional-metonymic pole. Detailed analyses of Murdoch's aesthetic and ethical thought and of a wide selection of her novels illustrate this thesis.
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Lash, Elliott James Frick. "A synchronic and diachronic analysis of Old Irish copular clauses." Thesis, University of Cambridge, 2011. http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.609634.
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Tarnovecky, Matthew. "The Rise and Fall of the Black King: Girardian Thought in the Tragedy of Macbeth." Cleveland State University / OhioLINK, 2014. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=csu1405425188.
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Green, Antony D. "Phonology limited." Universität Potsdam, 2007. http://opus.kobv.de/ubp/volltexte/2007/1551/.
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Phonology Limited is a study of the areas of phonology where the application of optimality theory (OT) has previously been problematic. Evidence from a wide variety of phenomena in a wide variety of languages is presented to show that interactions involving more than just faithfulness and markedness are best analyzed as involving language-specific morphological constraints rather than universal phonological constraints. OT has proved to be a highly insightful and successful theory of linguistics in general and phonology in particular, focusing as it does on surface forms and treating the relationship between inputs and outputs as a form of conflict resolution. Yet there have also been a number of serious problems with the approach that have led some detractors to argue that OT has failed as a theory of generative grammar. The most serious of these problems is opacity, defined as a state of affairs where the grammatical output of a given input appears to violate more constraints than an ungrammatical competitor. It is argued that these problems disappear once language-specific morphological constraints are allowed to play a significant role in analysis. Specifically, a number of processes of Tiberian Hebrew traditionally considered opaque are reexamined and shown to be straightforwardly transparent, but crucially involving morphological constraints on form, such as a constraint requiring certain morphological forms to end with a syllabic trochee, or a constraint requiring paradigm uniformity with regard to the occurrence of fricative allophones of stop phonemes.
Language-specific morphological constraints are also shown to play a role in allomorphy, where a lexeme is associated with more than one input; the constraint hierarchy then decides which input is grammatical in which context. For example, [ɨ]/[ə] and [u]/[ə] alternation found in some lexemes but not in others in Welsh is attributed to the presence of two inputs for the lexemes with the alternation. A novel analysis of the initial consonant mutations of the modern Celtic languages argues that mutated forms are separately listed inputs chosen in appropriate contexts by constraints on morphology and syntax, rather than being outputs that are phonologically unfaithful to their unmutated inputs.
Finally, static irregularities and lexical exceptions are examined and shown to be attributable to language-specific morphological constraints. In American English, the distribution of tense and lax vowels is predictable in several contexts; however, in some contexts, the distributions of tense [ɔ] vs. lax [a] and of tense [æ] vs. lax [æ] are not as expected. It is shown that clusters of output-output faithfulness constraints create a pattern to which words are attracted, which however violates general phonological considerations. New words that enter the language first obey the general phonological considerations before being attracted into the language-specific exceptional pattern.
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Van, Hattum Marije. "Irish English modal verbs from the fourteenth to the twentieth centuries." Thesis, University of Manchester, 2012. https://www.research.manchester.ac.uk/portal/en/theses/irish-english-modal-verbs-from-the-fourteenth-to-the-twentieth-centuries(1d718180-f025-473e-8ed3-7b7ccc4ac0de).html.
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The thesis provides a corpus-based study of the development of Irish English modal verbs from the fourteenth to the twentieth centuries in comparison to mainland English. More precisely, it explores the morpho-syntax of CAN, MAY, MUST, SHALL and WILL and the semantics of BE ABLE TO, CAN, MAY and MUST in the two varieties. The data of my study focuses on the Kildare poems, i.e. fourteenth-century Irish English religious poetry, and a self-compiled corpus consisting of personal letters, largely emigrant letters, and trial proceedings from the late seventeenth to the twentieth centuries. The analysis of the fourteenth and nineteenth centuries is further compared to a similar corpus of English English. The findings are discussed in the light of processes associated with contact-induced language change, new-dialect formation and supraregionalization. Contact-induced language change in general, and new-dialect formation in particular, can account for the findings of the fourteenth century. The semantics of the Irish English modal verbs in this century were mainly conservative in comparison to English English. The Irish English morpho-syntax showed an amalgam of features from different dialects of Middle English in addition to some forms which seem to be unique to Irish English. The Irish English poems recorded a high number of variants per function in comparison to a selection of English English religious poems, which does not conform to predictions based on the model of new-dialect formation. I suggest that this might be due to the fact that the English language had not been standardized by the time it was introduced to Ireland, and thus the need to reduce the number of variants was not as great as it is suggested to be in the post-standardization scenarios on which the model is based. In seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Ireland, increased Irish/English bilingualism caused the formation of a second-language (L2) variety of English. In the nineteenth century the bilingual speakers massively abandoned the Irish language and integrated into the English-speaking community. As a result, the varieties of English as spoken by the bilingual speakers and as spoken by the monolingual English speakers blended and formed a new variety altogether. The use of modal verbs in this new variety of Irish English shows signs of colonial lag (e.g. in the development of a deontic possibility meaning for CAN). Additionally, the subtle differences between BE ABLE TO and CAN in participant-internal possibility contexts and between epistemic MAY and MIGHT in present time contexts were not fully acquired by the L2 speakers, which resulted in a higher variability between the variants in the new variety of Irish English. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries the use of modal verbs converged on the patterns found in English English, either as a result of linguistic accommodation in the case of informants who had migrated to countries such as Australia and the United States, or as a result of supraregionalization in the case of those who remained in Ireland.
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McQuaid, Andrew. "Advice for kings : an investigation into a subdivision of early Irish wisdom literature." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 2017. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/8519/.
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This thesis examines a corpus of vernacular wisdom literature from early Ireland that is often referred to as tecosca ríg ‘instructions for kings’, or specula principum ‘mirrors for princes’. It reappraises some of the major theories and perceptions relating to this corpus in an effort to bring scholarly understanding up to date. The thesis begins by examining how and why modern scholars have read this corpus as wisdom literature for kings. It then looks at the development of modern theories of early Irish kingship and kingship ideology in relation to changing perceptions of vernacular literature. Special attention is paid to the concept of sacred kingship, with which this corpus been associated. Finally, this thesis examines the evidence of the tecosca against some of the major themes and debates raised in relation to the perception that these texts constitute advice for kings.
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Jones, Mary-Ellen. "It's an Irish Lullaby: One Story of Hyphenated American Culture." VCU Scholars Compass, 2006. http://hdl.handle.net/10156/1911.
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Ingridsdotter, Kicki. "Aided Derbforgaill "The violent death of Derbforgaill" : A critical edition with introduction, translation and textual notes." Doctoral thesis, Uppsala universitet, Avdelningen för keltiska språk, 2009. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-102057.
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This dissertation contains a critical edition of the early Irish tale Aided Derbforgaill “the violent death of Derbforgaill”. It includes an introduction discussing the main thematic components of the tale as well as intertextuality, transmission and manuscript relationship. The edition is accompanied by transcripts from the three manuscript copies of the tale and textual notes. Aided Derbforgaill is an Ulster Cycle tale and belongs to a category of tales describing the death of prominent heroes, rarely heroines, in early Irish literature. Arriving in the shape of a bird to mate with the greatest of all heroes, Cú Chulainn, Derbforgaill is refused by Cú Chulainn on account of him having sucked her blood. Forced to enter a urination competition between women, and upon winning this, Derbforgaill is mutilated by the other competitors. The tale ends with two poems lamenting the death of Derbforgaill. This very short tale is complex, not only in its subject matter, but in the elliptical language of the poetry. Thematically the tale is a combination of very common motifs found elsewhere in early Irish literature, such as the Otherworld, metamorphosis and the love of someone unseen, and some rare motifs that are almost unique to this tale, such as blood sucking and the urination competition. The text also have clear sexual overtones.
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Breen, Mary Catherine. "The making and unmaking of an Irish woman of letters." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2012. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:83af4e95-c26a-4bf2-a319-bb2a1240c55d.
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Dorothea Herbert was an Irish provincial writer who did not publish during her lifetime. Only three of her manuscripts are now extant: a collection of poetry, Poetical Eccentricities Written by an Oddity (1793), an illustrated memoir, Retrospections of an Outcast (1806) and a Journal which covers the years 1806-7. All three manuscripts were missing for long periods and some doubts as to their existence and authenticity made many scholars reluctant to study her work. There is almost no documented historical evidence of her life and our only access to her is through her writing. The internal evidence of her writing suggests that by 1806 she was suffering from a serious mental illness. Nevertheless, her works reveal a relatively hidden world of literary practice in Ireland in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Studied alongside the manuscripts and printed works of a range of contemporary writers, Herbert’s extant manuscripts uncover a complex and informal literary culture. This textual world is dependent on print culture but operates independently of it in a closed system of gift-giving and manuscript circulation. In this thesis I explore the influence of print culture on the writing and reading practices of Herbert and her contemporaries. The thesis is divided into five chapters which examine: the history of Herbert’s manuscripts and those of her contemporaries, their writing as material practice, the cultures in which they read the writing and circulation of manuscripts and the history of the print trade in Ireland in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.
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Maher, Martina. "The death of Finn mac Cumaill." Thesis, University of Glasgow, 2018. http://theses.gla.ac.uk/30591/.
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Finn mac Cumaill (Fionn Mac Cumhaill) has always been a popular figure in Gaelic tradition, coming to full prominence during the Early Modern period, as Fenian stories (tales of Finn and his fían, or fianna, known as fianaigecht in Old Irish and fiannaíocht in Modern Irish) become ever more popular in manuscript form. Despite the popularity that both Finn and the Finn Cycle have enjoyed in Gaelic literature, mentions of Finn's death are scant and tales recounting the event are even rarer. In the extant medieval Irish literature, the pinnacle of the corpus, Acallam na Senórach, not only holds the events in relative obscurity but its presentation of the circumstances of Finn's death may even be said to be conflicting. In looking at other tales in the fíanaigecht corpus, while we find a number of references to the fact than Finn dies, only a few depict his demise, namely Aided Finn and Tesmolta Cormaic ocus Aided Finn. To this short list of narratives detailing Finn's death and the events preceding it, we can add the tale designated 'The Chase of Síd na mBan Finn and the Death of Finn' (henceforth 'The Chase') preserved in a single manuscript, London, British Library, MS Egerton 1782. Although the tale breaks off with Finn still alive, albeit weary and bloodied and standing alone encircled by his adversaries, his death is a logical next element in the narrative, not least because there is repeated mention of a prophecy of his demise throughout the tale. This tale, which spans eight manuscript pages, seems to be the longest engagement with the idea of Finn's death in the medieval and Early Modern Irish corpora, yet has been the subject of very little scholarly investigation to date. This regrettable lacuna in scholarship on Fenian literature is the starting point for this thesis, which presents a three-pronged investigation of 'The Chase'. Following a fuller introduction to the topic in Chapter 1, the history of the manuscript is examined afresh in Chapter 2 as new evidence, particularly from the works of the scribe Muiris Ó Gormáin, has shed new light on the manuscript's history and on the tale of 'The Chase'. This is then employed to examine the section of the manuscript in which 'The Chase' is to be found, a section consisting of four tales thought to be from the now lost manuscript, Cín Dromma Snechtai, and four fíanaigecht tales. It is investigated if the unit may be considered a deliberate anthology and whether thematic and/or other concerns motivated the unit's compilation. Next, the study turns to the tale of 'The Chase' itself, examining its place within a continuum of traditions found in Old, Middle and Early Modern Irish treatments of Finn's death. Based on my own linguistic work on 'The Chase', a semi-diplomatic edition of which is included as an appendix to this thesis, it is demonstrated in Chapter 3 that the author of 'The Chase' seems to have been aware of several accounts of Finn's death, either those which are now extant or sources akin to them, and sought to bring together many of the elements present in other accounts of Finn's death in a single tale, perhaps in what was intended to be a comprehensive death tale for Finn. The various elements of the tale which resonate with the event of or events leading up to Finn's death, however, have not merely been cobbled together. Rather it is illustrated that the composition skilfully treats of the themes of death, prophecy and youth versus age, making regular allusion to the audience's presumed knowledge of other tales of the Fenian corpus, while adhering to the norms of earlier written fíanaigecht literature, a trait not always found in Early Modern tales of the Finn Cycle. The last study which forms part of this thesis, Chapter 4, arose from the recognition that although 'The Chase' appears to be the longest extant engagement with Finn's death, there exists no study that details what material on Finn's death has circulated in the modern period. This section provides a comprehensive overview of modern engagements with Finn's death in post-1650 manuscripts and folklore collections. All the modern accounts that I have found to date in which Finn's death is recounted or in which it is presumed that Finn is dead, which are usually mentions of Finn's grave, are therefore identified, presented, and where applicable, translated. While it becomes clear that no other engagement with Finn's demise across the eleven centuries during which his death excited the Gaelic imagination is as long or as complex as 'The Chase', common or notable motifs in the modern accounts are identified, and similarities between the different treatments of Finn's death in the modern narratives are discussed. It is shown that a small number of the motifs and events treated in the medieval accounts of Finn’s death and in 'The Chase' are also treated in the modern tales of his demise, thus indicating some thematic continuity between medieval and modern approaches to relating how Finn died. With this in mind, some further relationships between the modern accounts of Finn's death and other medieval and modern Fenian literature are explored.